HER WAY (UNE FEMME DU MONDE)

Cert 18

97 mins

BBFC advice: Contains strong sex, sexually abusive behaviour, nudity

French politics may have become more and more conservative over the years but that could not be said of the country's cinema industry.

Independent thought is not only encouraged but supported and movies such as Cécile Ducrocq's Her Way are in the mainstream.

I can't believe that this would have been allocated much of a budget if it had been made in the UK.

This is because it is a film about a prostitute and it tacitly accepts that this is a justifiable way to earn a living.

Laure Calamy plays Marie, who has no shame about her line of work and even leads demonstrations over the rights of sex workers.

Meanwhile, she wants the very best for her teenage son (Nissim Renard) - a sullen occasional drug-user who cares less about his own prospects than his mum.

She has seized upon his love of cooking and tries to get him into a specialist college but his school record stands against him.

Thus, she alights upon a fee-paying academy and insists he applies even though she hasn't worked out how they will afford it.

It is clear that Marie, while not embarrassed about her profession, is desperate for her lad not to struggle in the same way.

But he is a typical teenager - unambitious and angry at his mum because he perceives that she is trying to take over his life.

Her Way is a fascinating and gritty portrait of the relationship between a young single mum and her son while also giving an insight into the life of a sex worker in France.

Calamy is superb in the lead - a woman with relentless spirit who fights her boy's corner at all costs but, for all her experience, even she faces situations which can spiral easily out of control.

Ducrocq adopts a great balance - making no judgments about Marie's basic life choices but moving on to her parenting dilemmas.

She certainly provokes a great deal of thought.